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Firehawk compared to Pod HD500 - HD Amp Models - Help...!?


vshort73
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I am a current owner of a Pod HD500 (not X).  Been quite happy with it but never cared for the amount of tweaking needed and the interface.  After some research I decided to pull the trigger on the new Firehawk FX unit to see if it could replace my Pod HD500 as I love the idea of iOS editing, storing, etc...

 

From all of the research I did as well as a call to the Line 6 Support Team - it sounded like, in theory, that the Firehawk would be able to identically reproduce any of the HD amps I had configured in the Pod500.  For example, if I had created a patch in the Pod500 with a PhD Motorway amp/cab setup, since the Firehawk has the exact same HD amp model, I could use the same settings/parameters for that amp in the Firehawk and get an identical tone.  

 

The problem is that after A/B'ing between the two pedals of a couple "identical" amp patches it became very apparent that they were not the same sounding at all.  I did this last night with headphones and then again this AM through my PA at a decent volume.  The headphone test was MUCH more revealing but I still was able to tell a difference in the PA test.  

 

My findings were that the Firehawk patches were VERY flat sounding (for lack of a better description).  Like no real dynamics (even ensuring that any compressors were off).  Since these are digital sources and supposedly are using the same "software" I was really surprised.  And I am not a "tone-a-phile" by any means, it was just really obvious.  When not directly comparing, the Firehawk sounded pretty good but then when I'd go back over to the Pod500 it was really, really, obvious.  The Pod500 had much more depth and feel to it's sound.

 

I am posting this here to see if anyone has had a similar experience or if perhaps there are any suggestions or tips that I am missing when configuring the Firehawk.  I really love the ease and interface of the Firehawk and don't need all of the extra features that the Pod500 has over the Firehawk, but if I cannot get the exact same sound from an indexical amp patch setup it may be a deal breaker.  

 

 

Thoughts/suggestions...???

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Thanks for the thoughts so far!

 

I did experiment with the noise gate and that didn't seem to make a difference.

 

One thing I failed to mention is that the tones I am experimenting with are more like a light crunch sound.  Nothing with really high gain, just a moderate amount of drive on a more clean type amp - think Fender Twin Reverb tones.  

 

The interesting thing that I started to wonder is that maybe these Firehawk isn't actually worse in any way, just different and maybe better or more accurate?!?!? 

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I think the cabs are from pod 2.0 or something like that, with my old pedal I couldn't use cab sims when going into the fx return of my amp because it sounded really washed out, with the firehawk it sounds better with cab sims on which I found strange, maybe the cab sims are watered down somehow from the hd500 cabs

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Hi, I have both the firehawk and the POD500 (not x) too.

 

I can't get the exact same tone on my firehawk that I love on my POD either. I have this one that is SRV reverb and delay that sounds amazing on my pod, but I can't quite replicate it on my firehawk......yet.

 

I have found about 15-20 more tones that I love on my firehawk already so I'm very happy. Still learning how to tweak it to my ear too. Took me a long time to get good tones out of the Pod was still learning it to be honest, but I like the firehawk better because it is easier to tone match and I don't have to spend hours fiddling to get close to a tone.

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